Progressive Politics from Memphis

Third Way Scared to Death of Any Third Way Other Than Their Third Way

This one comes from the Establishment Group that seeks to pretend like its not part of the establishment department.

via Adbusters

Third Way, the moderate, moderation kinda liking “think tank” is advising the Democratic party to steer clear of the Occupy Wall Street movement reports Jason Linkins for HuffPo. Seems the middle of the roaders have found that being middle of the road means you can’t be one of the 99% or anything that looks like someone that’s been shafted by the current economic climate.

This is hilarious to me because their name is “Third Way” not “Middle of the Road Mealy Mouthed Millionaires”, which is exactly what Third Way is.

A quick look at their trustees reads like a who’s who list of investment bankers and 1%’ers. Apparently Third Way only wants it their way and if you think any other way you can hit the highway.

Ok, that’s enough of the “way” fun.

In reality, the Occupy Wall Street folks have a real platform, or at least the beginning of one, and that’s something that Third Way just can’t abide while pushing mushy moderation. Also the fact that Third Way is tied to Wall Street, well, that means some of their friends might just have to suffer some consequences. Pity.

That’s not to say that I think the Democratic Party can or should work to co-opt anything the way the GOP took over and financed the Tea Party. Sure that brought them short term political gains, but now they’re in worse shape in terms of public opinion than they were before. No one really knows what the OWS movement will turn into in 12 months.

Nope, we don’t need to suck the wind out of the Occupy Wall Street folks’ sails by tying them to us or work to hasten their demise by some underhanded or expedient political moves. We should listen carefully to what they’re saying, and where we can, talk about policies that fall in line with their ideology.

They are trying to do what neither Congress, the President, nor the Tea Party would do, they went to the source of the problem. We should thank them for that.

But not only should we thank them, we should listen. This is the first real quasi-organized group that has really drawn a line in the sand against the problem. Their platform is consistent with their view of the problem. There aren’t people out there saying take the government out of my government program. They are, at least, somewhat consistent. The Democratic Party, and Democratic elected officials could learn a thing or two from this movement.

What they’re saying is that people that are experiencing the same things they are make up the 99%. What they’re saying is that the interests of that 99% have been ignored for too long. What they’re saying is they want their elected representatives to listen to them and address the issues that are negatively impacting them…the same issues that are keeping the country out of a recovery.

Its easy to dismiss things like this out of hand, but I hope that doesn’t happen. I think if Democrats listened rather than try to find a short-term political answer…I think if they worked to honestly address these issues that the country would be a lot better off, and they would win some support from the Occupy movement.

I think we all need to do more listening and less talking if we want to solve our problems. I like that the OWS folks are listening to each other. I think we should take a cue from them.